March 2013 Blog Posts (17)

There are not as many contractors out there as you would expect that are current with the most recent, and always updating, residential building code. Particularly when it comes to the sizing limitations for HVAC equipment, most contractors consider this minimum requirement by law nothing more than a nuisance. There is nothing more frustrating to see in a quality control role than a system that was sold, sized, and installed prior to the start of the system design process. Completing a…

Ok, I have had a couple programmable thermostats in the past... But, once again about 11 months ago I was doing my weekly (sometimes daily) stroll through the neighborhood 'big-box' home improvement store and back in the back past the garden section there is this little…

What house has a built in energy meter? The YesHaus of course! This is like having a speedometer on your home and a way to record and measure your energy use. What better way to know where you stand and what to expect on your bill? The image you see is from an actual YesHaus reading that we took on March 21.

Look at how low the readings are on each gauge shown. This screenshot of the actual dashboard indicates a predicted home heating cost of only $9.19 for the…

This site is supposed to be the next big thing. You give it your electric co. and water co. names and passwords. It delivers a free & pretty usage report to you. It promises you all these local friends that you will get together with at the local speakeasy to talk about home…

Ok, back in November 2012 I stumbled into my local 'big-box' home improvement store with an extra $1,000 USD to burn and without any research or pre-planning I purchased 35 LED bulbs to replace my incandescent and CFL bulbs. I was way tired of continually replacing a couple CFLs time and time again and the 25,000-50,000 hours of lifetime sparked my interest and put a $1K hole in my wallet. At a burn time average of 3-hours per day that is 22-45 years of…

The announcement below highlights a very exciting opportunity in the multifamily housing industry. We still have a need for more Multifamily Building Operator applicants. Specifically, we are seeking individuals who have experience with multifamily buildings in the following capacities:

Oversight and management of third-party contractors for equipment maintenance, repair, and installation

We are an energy consultancy business based in Scotland, UK, our building codes are tightening and becoming more onerous, many issues you guys have been dealing with for many years are now part of our codes: air tightness thermal imaging and modelling of buildings to name a few.

My objective is to find like minded experienced consultants and or potential product partners to work within the UK & Ireland

Atlanta, Georgia has a reputation for getting pretty darn hot, but it can also get pretty dang cold (No snickering from you Northerners, please!). Believe it or not, Atlantans use more energy to heat their homes than they do to cool them. The design temperature set by …

The dramatic decline in the price allows renewable energy to become increasingly competitive with fossil fuels worldwide, according to a recent survey conducted by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA ).

The report, published at the time of holding the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, made projections that the cost of manufacturing technology for more types of renewable energy sources will continue increasing to fall in the coming years.…

Most of us will agree that it’s technically feasible to build homes that consume dramatically less energy than today’s typical home. And in most locations we can build a home that draws net zero energy from the utility. But it’s economics that makes us hesitate. Specifically, it’s the value of those energy savings. Can the additional investment be offset by anticipated reductions in energy costs? It’s the same thing for retrofits of existing homes: Do the lower energy bills justify the…